At last!

19 October 2023

Dinamo Minsk 3 Kunlun Red Star 4 OT

You can’t beat that winning feeling. After a tough 10-game streak, the Dragons took the W from Minsk with two new signings getting important firsts for the team.

The result also maintains a perfect record in shoot-outs this season, with three successes from games against Amur, Magnitka and now Minsk.

As for those important firsts, we saw Teemu Pulkkinen collect two assists to get his first points since joining KRS. Perhaps that wasn’t such a big surprise: Teemu’s KHL career began in Minsk, and we all know about sport’s law of the ex. One of those assists set up Brandon McMillan’s first goal in Red Star colors. The much-travelled Canadian now has goals for six clubs in the KHL (albeit two of them, Medvescak and Dinamo Riga, are no longer in the competition).

It’s also worth noting the form of fit-again Parker Foo. He missed the first month of the season, but is getting better and better as he adds game time. Today he scored his third goal in five games to complete a fightback from 1-3.

The first period was a bit odd. In many respects, the Dragons had the better of the play: more time on offense, significantly more face-off wins. However, Dinamo outshot our guys 11-4 and got in front thanks to Yanni Kaldis.

However, late in that frame we got a five-on-three power play, and early in the second that brought us a tying goal. Pulkkinen was involved, feeding the puck back to Ryan Merkley on the blue line and another thumping shot from the D-man was too much for Alexei Kolosov in the home net.

Unfortunately, Ryan was not the only Merkley to find the net today: his namesake Nick (no relation) restored Dinamo’s lead and our task got tougher midway through the second when Daniil Sotishvili made it 3-1.

But the third period produced a rousing recovery. True, it wasn’t apparent right away. Dinamo got an early power play and our guys had to be alert to kill the danger. But once back at full strength we began to produce some of our best hockey in recent weeks. Newcomers Pulkkinen and McMillan made the most of a menacing rush from our Merkley, peppering Kolosov with shots from close range until the Belarusian surrendered and the Canadian scored.

Then, midway through the frame, a spell of pressure in the Dinamo end had the home team in difficulties. Defenseman Kodie Curran was left without his stick and when Parker Foo brought the puck off the boards he was able to exploit his defenseless opponent with a shot from between the hashmarks to make it 3-3.

That took us to overtime for the second time in three games: signs of improvement despite the long losing streak. The extras were inconclusive, although we survived an early scare when Dinamo’s Vitaly Pinchuk dinged the piping. No goals meant a chance to extend our perfect shoot-out record, and the guys did just that. After 10 attempts, the teams were locked at 1-1. In sudden death, Sam Anas and Jack Rodewald traded two more successful efforts. Then, after a miss from Vladislav Kodola, Luke Lockhart stepped up to finish the job. A great effort, and a great result … so let’s not leave so long next time, eh?